"the shaper of the intelligent age"
On June 8th, 2020, 65438+February 8th, AI unicorn Tian Yun Li Fei submitted an IPO prospectus in science and technology innovation board, raising 3 billion yuan. Among them, 800 million yuan is used for urban AI computing hub and intelligent application research and development projects, 300 million yuan is used for scenario-oriented next-generation AI technology research and development projects, 500 million yuan is used for visual computing AI chip projects based on neural network processors, and 654.38+04 billion yuan is used to supplement liquidity projects.
Three months later, Tian Yun Li Fei received an inquiry letter. In the first round of inquiries in science and technology innovation board, the Shanghai Stock Exchange mainly paid attention to 34 issues such as shareholders, historical evolution, unprofitable and accumulated losses, subsidiaries and branches, personnel, main products, industry characteristics, market competition, related parties, income composition and customers, gross profit margin, period expenses, pending lawsuits and administrative penalties.
Among them, the most influential problems are the resignation of company executives, the change of shareholders, long-term losses and unstable income growth. And these problems are not unique to Tian Yun Li Fei. Most artificial intelligence companies face these problems, such as Yunzhisheng, Wosai Technology, Yi Tu and many other companies whose IPO applications have been terminated.
These AI unicorns are all fighting for the "first AI share", but the reality is that they are in danger of collective drowning. Congyun, Defiance, Yi Tu and Yunzhisheng, which disclosed the prospectus, all suffered losses. The greater pressure is that these AI unicorns, which have received a lot of financing, cannot obtain high valuations when matching financing in the secondary market.
Therefore, when these enterprises prepare to apply for listing, various problems will be clearly exposed.
Why do these AI companies encounter such difficulties now?
First of all, from the industrial chain of AI industry, the basic layer of artificial intelligence industry mainly provides data and computing support, including hardware facilities, system platforms and data resources. The technical layer is perception and cognitive ability, including algorithm model, basic framework and general technology; The application layer is the scene and product, mainly including all kinds of intelligent products and application platforms.
At the same time, intelligent products and many IOT terminals and edge devices are important sources of data resources, which form a continuous supplement to the underlying data of the basic layer, and then drive the evolution and iteration of the technical layer, thus forming a complete closed loop.
At present, domestic artificial intelligence enterprises are mainly concentrated in the application layer, and the basic layer is relatively weak. Due to the high demand for technology and capital, the underlying technology of the basic layer is monopolized by a few international giants. Moreover, the current direction of AI application is still relatively limited. At this time, many AI companies will have overlapping business and their advantages are not obvious. In the long run, it will have a certain impact on the core competitiveness of enterprises.
But in addition to these external factors, the growth of enterprises is also a great influencing factor.
1, the growth cycle of the enterprise
Edith mentioned in The Growth Cycle of Enterprises that enterprises are like people. For them, it is normal to struggle and experience storms at every stage of their life cycle. In the next stage of development, enterprises will also face the problem of transformation. In the course of life, enterprises should learn to deal with these problems themselves, otherwise they will develop into diseases that hinder the development of enterprises.
Every stage of an enterprise's growth will have corresponding problems, which need managers to overcome. The leap in each stage is also a test of a melting pot and a reorganization of life. Enterprises can successfully enter the next stage and get a new life after successfully passing through this melting pot.
According to Edith's theory of enterprise growth cycle, the life cycle of an enterprise can be divided into gestation period, infancy, toddler period, adolescence, mature period, stable period, aristocratic period, early bureaucratic period and death period.
The growth and aging of enterprises are mainly expressed through the relationship between flexibility and controllability. Enterprises are full of flexibility when they are young, but their control is not necessarily strong. When the enterprise ages, the relationship changes: controllability increases, but flexibility decreases.
"Young" here means that enterprises are relatively easy to make changes and adjustments, but due to the low level of control, their behavior is generally unpredictable. "Aging" means that enterprises have strong control over behavior, but lack flexibility and reform intention. An enterprise has both flexibility and control, that is, when it is neither too naive nor senile, it has the advantage of being young and mature, showing vitality and control. This stage is called the prime of life and is the best state of the enterprise.
Enterprises in their prime can carry out reforms according to the wishes of managers and have the ability to grasp their future direction. The essence of management is not to create a bad environment without "problems" at all, but to guide enterprises to enter the prime of life and stay young forever.
According to the theory of enterprise life cycle, the first stage of enterprise life cycle is incubation period. At this time, the enterprise has not yet been born, and it is just an idea of starting a business. At this time, the intention of starting a business and the possibility of future realization are emphasized. Entrepreneurs need extreme enthusiasm and self-confidence to convince themselves and others that what they do can be successful. At this time, entrepreneurs are dreamers.
When the enterprise is really born, some people take risks, and the enterprise also enters infancy from the gestation period.
At this time, enterprises in infancy need financial support to survive. At this time, entrepreneurs pay great attention to sales and go all out. As long as you see the first sign of an opportunity, you can't help but seize it for fear of missing a rare opportunity. At this time, the key point is to live hard, and it is also a good opportunity to polish products and accept market verification. But it is also a process of experimenting with dreams. This process is very likely to break the illusion of entrepreneurs, and may even be full of twists and turns. If this stage is successfully passed, it means that the product has passed the market test and the entrepreneur's dream can continue to shine.
After completing the market experiment of products, enterprises should pursue sales measured by market share and profit. At this time, the enterprise has also entered a toddler period.
At this time, the enterprise is in good operating condition and has a good prospect. Entrepreneurs feel that they can overcome everything and begin to have an expansion of self-confidence. They think they can do anything, so they carry out multiple business routes at the same time. Finally, they found that resources and energy were not enough to support the rapid expansion, and it was very likely that the company's business was in trouble. It is normal to have problems. The most important thing is that entrepreneurs can wake up in time, establish the priority of enterprise development, concentrate on the most important part first, and gradually plan the administrative system and working procedures to make the company's development more efficient and prepare for the next stage of adolescence.
In enterprises entering adolescence, entrepreneurs should gradually empower themselves, standardize working procedures, establish a functional responsibility system, and institutionalize previous exploration experience and successful models. At this time, they should pay attention to the double promotion of corporate profits and benefits. The institutionalized process of adolescence prepares enterprises for their heyday.
However, at this time, it is very likely that the founding team will break up because of differences in ideas. The founders began to comprehensively consider the ratio of profit to cost, and no longer pursued innovation recklessly like the gestation period and infancy, but some people still clung to the passion of creating products before and wanted to continue the state of gestation period and infancy. Because they didn't want to compromise, they finally chose to leave, especially innovative technical talents.
After successfully passing through adolescence, the enterprise entered the prime of life. At this time, the enterprise has both institutionalized system and innovative spirit, which is the best state of enterprise development. Enterprises with a long history have the vitality and control to maintain their prime of life for a long time.
It is a process in which entrepreneurs constantly challenge and deny themselves from the gestation period to the heyday. Every time an enterprise enters a stage, it is a test of a melting pot for entrepreneurs, and it is a process of reinventing itself and gaining new life. The successful personality traits of entrepreneurs in the last stage may hinder their development at this stage, so entrepreneurs constantly abandon their successful past and shape their new selves in the process of experiencing the melting pot.
Nowadays, artificial intelligence companies in the market, especially those that want to be listed on the science and technology innovation board, are frequently blocked, and the IPO applications of Yunzhisheng, Jose Technology, Yi Tu and many other companies have been terminated. Judging from their scale and characteristics, most of them are in the transitional stage from toddler to adolescence, and they still need external support and cannot grow up on their own.
At present, science and technology innovation board's audit is more and more strict, and Tian Yun Li Fei faces many challenges if he wants to go public successfully. This challenge is not only due to the change of external policies, but also the difficulties faced by enterprises themselves.
2. Tian Yun Li Fei's growth cycle
An article in the 265438+20 th Century Business Herald entitled "AI Starts Langtaosha and Opens the Road to A-share Listing" wrote, "The road to entrepreneurship is divided into three development stages. The first stage is more about the research and development, precipitation and polishing of the technology platform. From 20 14 to 20 16, it took more than two years to consolidate the bottom.
"20 17 to 20 19, entering the stage of product landing, scene development and market expansion. In response to various scenarios, Li Fei, Tian Yun has gradually enriched its solutions, landed a city-level dynamic portrait system, and developed various applications of various police types, from policing to smart community governance, park management, and commercial fields. "
On the one hand, the dynamic portrait recognition system "Deep Eye" is famous for helping to solve crimes, and it has quickly landed in most parts of Shenzhen, more than 20 cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, and many countries in Southeast Asia. On the other hand, Tian Yun Li Fei's solution has also expanded from public safety to urban governance and new business. "
"After 20 19, Yuntian Lifei entered the third stage, that is, the rapid development stage. At this time, Yuntian Lifei has the ability to quickly develop municipal-level solutions, and quickly developed a municipal-level epidemic monitoring and big data analysis platform during the 2020 epidemic. "
As can be seen from the above description, from 20 14 to 20 16, Li Fei, Tian Yun is in the initial stage, which is a stage of constantly tapping market demand, polishing products and verifying the product market.
20 16, the dynamic portrait recognition system "Deep Eye" developed by Li Fei, Tian Yun began to land in Longgang District, Shenzhen, and made its mark in the police field. This means that Tian Yun Li Fei has passed infancy and is ready to enter the toddler period.
At this time, Tian Yun Li Fei is in a toddler stage, gradually expanding from intelligent security to urban governance. This stage is the stage of expanding market share and the stage of rapid income growth.
According to the data disclosed in the prospectus, the revenue of Tian Yun Li Fei in 20 17, 20 18 and 20 19 was 50.233 million yuan, 65.438+33 million yuan and 230 million yuan respectively, which shows the rapid growth of revenue. However, during the period of 20201-September, the revenue was about 270 million yuan, and the revenue growth rate slowed down.
In addition, the net losses of Tian Yun Li Fei in 20 17, 20 18 and 20 19 years were 54.7963 million yuan, 65.438+99 million yuan and 5/kloc-0.00 million yuan, respectively, while the net losses in the first nine months of 2020 were 8.
For the future listing plan, Tian Yun Li Fei, a toddler, began to consider the transformation, gradually expanding its business scope from security to urban management, but at the same time, it should also comprehensively consider the ratio of cost and profit, gradually give up the previous work mode of focusing only on sales without considering the cost, start to pursue profits, adjust the development direction of enterprises, and start to standardize the company management system.
However, the enterprise succeeded by relying on the previous model at this time, but now it has to be replaced by a new model. At this time, there will be differences in ideas within the enterprise, and even lead to the departure of entrepreneurial partners.
Tian Yun Li Fei did meet the departure of his business partner at this stage.
Tian Yun once replied to the inquiry letter that Tian and Li Fei are both founding shareholders, and they jointly established Tian Yun Limited on 20 14 * *, in which Chen Ning holds 70% of the shares and Tian Dihong holds 30%; With the development of the company, the two gradually had major differences on the future development direction of the company. Tian decided to stop working on September 20 18.
The departure of core technicians will undoubtedly have a great impact on the development of Li Fei in Tian Yun, but fortunately, Li Fei, Tian Yun found Dr. Wang Xiaoyu as the chief scientist. Dr. Wang Xiaoyu used to be the chief researcher of NEC Laboratory, a former senior scientist of Snap and one of the founders of Snap Research Institute. His joining has provided a strong guarantee for the technical strength of Tian Yun Li Fei.
After 20 19, Tian Yun Li Fei gradually transited from toddler to adolescence. In 2020, Li Fei, Tian Yun began to prepare for listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, which also means that Li Fei, Tian Yun will begin to develop in the direction of standardized management.
At this time, Tian Yun Li Fei began to pay attention to the control of the company's cost and profit ratio, and established a system and management system with clear rights and responsibilities. Managers should start trying to authorize, and gradually make the enterprise become an organization that can grow itself without relying on one person's strength or external force, so as to avoid the departure of founders or important executives. This organization will not be able to function normally.
At this time, for company managers, the spirit of innovation must be guaranteed for a long time, but we should not only pay attention to innovation, but also consider the company's revenue, profit, cost and future, and take care of many aspects. This in itself is also a challenge to managers. First of all, they should be aware of the changes, and then promote the changes within the enterprise, which is a necessary process for the progress and growth of enterprises and managers.
On the other hand, the problems and challenges faced by Tian Yun Li Fei at this time are not only a good opportunity to change and learn, but also a rare melting pot for manager Chen Ning and the enterprise itself. Whether he can withstand the test of the melting pot in the end, none of us can draw a conclusion, and we can only leave time to verify it.
* References:
1, ichak adizes, enterprise life cycle, China Social Sciences Press.
2. Warren bennis's Freak and Grinch Machinery Industry Press.
3. Xinhuanet's "Technical backbones frequently leave their jobs, and the Science and Technology Innovation Board Company encounters the problem of retaining people"
4. Sohu The pending lawsuit of com and the unprofitable IPO of Tian Yun Li Fei Science and Technology Innovation Board are "serious injuries".
5. Reddy touched the net "Tian Yun was asked: Why did the second shareholder Tian quit Wang Xiaoyu's annual salary of over 10 million"
6. Tencent Com's "Tian Yun Li Fei continues to lose money, research and development declines, and the market will be classified as" blood supplement "no matter how bad it is.
7. Semiconductor industry observation "Tian Yun Li Fei: Low-key AI start-ups step by step to victory"